I'll keep you safe
by ourkidswouldbemartians
Summary: Answer to a prompt received on Tumblr : "I'll keep you safe"


After speeches were given by the three leaders everyone retreated in the houses. She found herself walking towards the house she used to share with her family, she stood at the front door feeling uncertain. She came back because they needed help, her loyalty and love for every single one of them were the only reasons why she was here… not to mention her burning desire for revenge. But this place, Alexandria, she had no idea how she felt about it, she loved the people who lived there but hated the place. This was the place where she had pretended to be someone she was not, this was the place she had wanted to escape from.

She sighed, annoyed by her own thoughts. It was just a house, four walls, a roof, it did not mean anything. The truth was that the only place she had truly wanted to escape was her own mind which was - still is - full of demons. Each demons representing everyone she ever killed, everyone she failed to save and her fear to lose her loved ones…

Eventually she opened the door, the whole place was quiet. Rick and Carl were probably spending the night with Michonne at the infirmary she thought. Then she wondered where Daryl could be, knowing perfectly that he was avoiding her. He had stood by her side during Sasha's burial, they had remained silent, because there was nothing to talk about anyway, it was another loss, another wound that would never truly heal. But after the burial, he quickly left without a single look. She knew things were going to move fast now, plans would be made, teams would be set up, the war was definitely on but before everything she wanted things to be clear between her and Daryl.

She slowly went upstairs, exhausted by a day of battle and went straight to the bathroom at the end of the hallway, eager to take a shower. It always surprised her how therapeutic showering could be, as if washing off the blood and the sweat could help her think more clearly. After this, she wrapped a towel around herself and joined her bedroom. It looked exactly the way she had left it, except for the missing mattress. After she got dressed, she heard steps in the hallway - Daryl's - she had been looking forward to talk to him but now she was feeling anxious about it. What if he pushed her away ?

Before letting anxiety take over her reason she opened her bedroom door.

"I'm not mad at you, Daryl," she simply said. He did not turn around but she could feel him tense up.

"I'm not mad that you lied to me," she explained.

"You ain't ?" He asked, turning around this time. He looked so vulnerable that she had to fight the urge to hug him.

"I know you,' she said. "You wanted to protect me. That's what you always do."

"But I ain't good at it," he said looking down.

"Daryl…"

"I lied because I didn't want to hurt ya, I didn't want ya to deal with them psychos out there but here you are… dragged into our fucking mess."

She could feel that he was getting angry, not with her but with himself.

"I'm here because I _want_ to Daryl. I want them to pay for what they did," she reassured.

"After…" he hesitated. "After Sophia, I told myself something," he was struggling to find the right words but she waited, she would not be able to speak anyway for hearing Sophia's name -especially- from Daryl simply immobilised her.

"I told myself, I'll keep ya safe. I'll keep ya safe from every shitty thing I can 'cause you've been through enough, ya was married to an asshole, ya lost yer little girl. But I didn't do so good now did I ? Ya said ya wanted a man of honour remember ? But I couldn't protect ya, I never could. Not from Rick when he send you away, not from whatever happened on the road after the prison with the girls. And then ya had to face a bunch of cannibals to save us, and the wolves… all by yourself," he finished and apologetically looked at her.

"You've always done the best you could Daryl. You can't control what the world does to me, to us. You can't protect me from everything, you know it's impossible," she reassured, trying to hide how overwhelmed she felt by his confession.

He did not responded and looked down again. He always felt like he was failing her, unaware of how honourable he was in her eyes. As she started to approach him, Ezekiel's words echoed in her head : _"Where there's life, there's hope, heroism, grace, and love…"_ Daryl represented all these things. She wrapped her arms around him, the same way she had on the day he had found her outside the Kingdom. And he did just the same, burying his head in her neck. And they stayed like this for a while, holding each other. The kind of embrace that was worth a thousand words.

Eventually she whispered :

"You're the best man I know. Never doubt that." She moved her head to face him and added : "I forbid it." She had that smug smile on her face that he loved so much and he nodded.

They both let go of each other but their body remained close, so close it was almost painful, her heart was beating fast for there was one thing she needed to ask him. But he looked at her knowingly, the way they could understand each other without talking would always surprise her. She had never felt so strongly connected to anyone.

"I can't right now…" she began. "But when this… When this is all over and if we're still here…" For once, she was the one struggling to find her words. So he spoke instead, for her :

"We deal with all that shit and if we're still here, we start over. You and me. I mean… if ya wanna put up with me."

"I'll put up with you," she said.

"Good," he answered like they had just sealed a deal and slowly moved in direction of the bathroom.

"Hang on… _You_ 're gonna take a shower ?" She asked.

He nodded.

"Boy… you think you know a guy." She said, laughing at her own remark. .

"You're an asshole," he said as he entered the bathroom. He couldn't help but chuckle and she found it endearing.


End file.
